Hendra property bought with prize money 99 years ago sells for $2.75 million

With time to move in before Christmas, buyers were out in force at auctions on Saturday, despite the 35-degree heat.

Bottles of iced water and shade umbrellas were the flavour of the day, while agents and auctioneers sweated it out in the sun to sell their properties.

Almost 150 properties were set to go under the hammer on Saturday, but the auction of the day was 33 Manson Road, Hendra.

On a huge 2039-square-metre block, the property had been in one family for 99 years and a crowd of about 100 gathered to watch the auction.

Ten registered for the bidding, which starting at $1 million. Despite the heat, the auction lasted about 20 minutes, as two bidders battled it out with a variety of bidding tactics before the hammer fell at $2.75 million.

It was a far cry from the small sum Catherine Gordon and Margaret Neville’s great uncle Pat Ryan paid back in the day. A horse trainer, prize money from winning horse Atholmore allowed him to build the home.

“It’s the end of a chapter,” Ms Neville said.

As well as being a Queenslander in original condition, the property has stables and outhouses, where horses from Sydney and Melbourne would be agisted before race day, Ms Gordon said.

“Jockeys, trainers and strappers would stay in the small house,” she said. “It was a hub of industry.”

Ms Gordon and Ms Neville said nothing has changed, except there are no longer horses.

“It’s never been ruined by renovation,” Ms Gordon said.

While there was plenty of interest in the home from builders, Ms Neville said she was “very happy” it ended up selling to a family.

Renovated home draws young buyers

In Alderley, a young couple bought a beautifully renovated art deco-style home for $845,000 under the hammer.

Two couples registered to bid at the auction of 20 Longsight Street, but a reasonable crowd gathered to watch, including people who had previously lived in the home.

Sisters Marilyn Moore and Christine Watson turned up to inspect the four-bedroom, one-bathroom home their father built in 1954, and to see how it had changed.

“Dad used to bicycle over from Bardon every weekend, and dad’s mate, who was a brickie, would show up and they spent weekends building,” Ms Moore said.

The family lived in the home until 1980s, but today the home looks quite different: The green shag carpet is gone, the kitchen has been moved and walls have been taken out in an exhaustive renovation completed 18 months ago.

Besides the total renovation, winning bidders Pedro Gondim and Kasia Nowak said it was the location that attracted them to the property.

“We’ve been looking around the area for a while,” Mr Gondim said. “We were beaten [at auction] a couple of months ago for a place up the road.”

The couple plan to renovate eventually – turning the laundry into a second bathroom – but for now they’ll live in the home as it is, and maybe get a dog.

Selling agent Ross Armstrong of Place Newmarket said it was a “spot-on” result.

Happy buyers, happy sellers

Another young professional couple won at auction in New Farm, buying a two-bedroom home at 26 Hawthorne Street for $1,367,500.

A crowd of about 60 gathered to watch the auction, despite the heat.

Eight people registered to bid, and four bidders were active but, in the end, it came down to two bidders and 500 bids for the chance to secure the property.

Selling agent Hamish Bowman of Ray White New Farm said the buyers are a young couple from Melbourne, who planned to rent the property out for a year, then move in themselves.

Mr Bowman said he’d sold three properties for the retired sellers this year, who planned to sail around the world.

Renovator’s delight

A Coopers Plains property with a tired old home but plenty of potential attracted a fair crowd at auction.

Five people registered to bid for the 911 square metre property at 246 Musgrave Road, which sold for $500,000 on the dot.

Auctioneer David Holmes of Metro Auctions said the property sold to a last-minute registration, and it was a great result.

Close to public transport, the property is likely to be redeveloped.